4 Answers
4

First take a backup of files you want
Then Boot up into the Livecd of Linux Mint, after it has loaded enter Gparted into the filter textbox of the Mint Menu. Then click on Gparted from the menu.After Gparted was loaded, you will see a list of all the partitions on your system.check for partitions Windows 7 created in your system

To delete windows 7 right click on its partitions and click delete. The windows 7 partitons will be the NTFS partitons if your not sure. You should now see 2 operations listed at the bottom of Gparted.Note that Gparted wont actually perform these operations until we tell it to. It may look like on Gparted that the Windows 7 partitions have now gone but their still there.

To resize the partition right click on it and click 'resize/move'. Drag the right arrow of the partition all the way to the right

Right click on the swap partition and click 'resize/move' now drag and move the coloured box with the two arrows all the way to the right.Then click the 'resize/move' button.Now we can resize the Linux Mint partition, right click it and click 'resize/move' then drag the right arrow to the right as far as you can then click the 'resize/move' button.

removing the Windows 7 entries from the grub menu.just login into Linux Mint, open the terminal and enter

And if you have some doubt about what partition do you have use the command as super user " fdisk -l " and post the output here so we can suggest you about your partitions.
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earlatiMay 24 '13 at 22:15

I initially commented on earlati's answer suggesting you use gparted for formatting your Windows partition(s). Now that I think about it, I suggest you wait.

Not that I'm against completely removing Windows from your HDD --trust me it's cathartic-- but I suggest you roll back your Windows 8 to Windows 7 if that choice is still available (come to think of it, what does happen when your 90-day trial ends?). I'm suggesting this for two reasons:

If I'm guessing correctly (and please forgive me if I presume), you're still a Linux newbie. Attempting the switch "cold-turkey", while commendable, may impact your productivity if not prevent your access to your box altogether. Remember this is GNU/Linux we're talking about: you can do absolutely anything you want but you don't get a safety net.

You mentioned Windows 7 starter which suggests that this is an OEM-shipped Windows, correct? I would keep the OEM-shipped Windows if I were you; if not for the fact that you paid for it, at least because it's guaranteed to support all the hardware out of the box.

In my opinion, you should make the complete switch when at least the following conditions are met:

You can make all of your box's hardware work under your Linux distro of choice (I'm talking webcam, graphics card, wireless card, touch-screen?, HDMI,...)

You've been using Linux for all your productivity-related tasks for a long enough period of time with no hiccups and you hardly find the need to switch to Windows.

To sum up, if you do want to remove Windows, go with earlati's answer and find yourself a suitable partition editor like gparted or similar. If you want my advice, roll back your Windows and come back here in a month or two...